Kolárovo Castle

The Kolárovo Castle is a castle in the town of Kolárovo, Slovakia.

History

The Kolárovo Castle was built at the place of the castle of queen Mary. It plays and in comparison with the large fortresses in Nové Zámky and Komárno, it has always played less important role in the history. It has been repaired and renovated several times according to the period requirements. At the beginning of Turkish occupation the fortress was quickly repaired by the local captain Gregor Martonosi Pesthényi in 1527, to protect it from the approaching army of Ján Zápol'ský, supported by the Ottoman Empire. That year an army commander of Zápoľský, Gašpar Ráskay drew into Guta and conquered the town. Soon afterwards, the fortress fell into the hands of the imperial Austrian army again.

Between 1584-1594 the fortress was strengthened with the help of the Italian army engineers. At the time when Gabriel Bethlen was conquering the fortress in Komárno, local Walloon and French soldiers escaped. Between 1662-1664 being afraid of new attacks of Turks, the fortress was modernized again. Inside there were stone accommodation houses and stone stores for gunpowder and guns. At that time there were 130 mercenaries behind the walls under the command of Matej Fröhwirtha. In the spring of 1707 at the time of the Rákóczi uprising, the count Quido Stahrenberg performed the fortification worth 6090 forints with the help of the army engineer Fischer.

The kuruc general Ján Bottyán stayed nearby the town for four times. On 12 July 1708 he conquered the fortress with the help of heavy artillery and captured local mercenaries. After fighting the fortress was destroyed and kuruc soldiers retreated with the words "Let it be the residence of frogs since now". Although the fortress was repaired later, its defamatory name Békavár (Frog castle) was preserved. Danish garrison was located there by general Heister. In 1840's the fortress had no importance, only the army of the general Görgeyho had a rest there after a lost battle.